Look at me: what do you see? Broth, vegetables and noodles? You are not mistaken, but you have not seen the essence of me. Look more closely. Use your inner eye. Look deeply. Look long and hard. Look, and see who I really am.
I am noodle soup, the epitome of wealth and luxury. Yes, in modern times I might be a cheap date - but it was not always so. I was once courted by emperors and privileged elite. And not without reason - noodle making is a high art, requiring strength, agility and inordinate skill. Sometimes a bit of luck too. To create the perfect Nanshan noodle, for example, the delicate noodle strings are hung up outdoors on a large wooden rack to stretch. Just a little rain, and the noodles are a muddy, inedible mess. Even in these modern ‘cheap-date’ times, remnants of my former glory persist. Try the US$324 bowl of Bui Ba Ba noodles in Taiwan, or a one-off US$5000 Vietnamese AngQhi Pho in Santa Monica. Oh yes, I am Noodle Soup: luxury and splendor.
Yes, but you haven’t seen everything. Come look a little more closely.
I am noodle soup, the feeder of armies. Where a great and violent horde has gone, I’ve been there too. The rise Han dynasty, Genghis Khan and his massive legion, the Samurai, the great Khmer armies at Angkor, and the invading Mughal, Babul the great. I kept the armies moving, fighting and in high spirits. But it’s not about the blood and devastation that these armies wrecked. With them, I brought civilisation and new chapters in history. Consider, for example, the years of peace and cultural development following Emperor Wu of Han’s expansionist wars in 135 BC, spreading with him the teaching of Confucius, and opening the way for the history-changing trade routes which became the Silk Road. But I don’t just feed the victors: I am the saviour of the defeated too. In post-Second World War Japan, the plight of a starving and indigent populace inspired bank manager Momofuku Ando’s pre-cooked instant noodles - now an international sensation and emblematic of cheap and efficient sustenance. Not quite as tasty as Bui Ba Ba noodles, admittedly, but hardy enough to get to the even remotest corners of Cambodia with ease.
Do you know me now? No, not yet. Come, look again.
I am noodle soup, the essence of life itself. Look at these noodles - they are long. They symbolize life. They start, they end, they wiggle and turn unpredictably: just as life itself does. Can you see? As you eat them, don’t let them break, don’t cut them: slurp them up noisily, just as one would proudly conquer the challenges and rewards of life. Use your lungs to suck them up - large, healthy lungs that breath are the living link between you and the air around you. Make them work, give them exercise, don’t be afraid of noise. Equally, allow these noodles to fill your stomach, and so fill your life with happiness, strength and vigor. Be sure to eat them on your birthday, wrap your hopes and dream in them as you mark your progress through life and ensure your longevity.
Now look at this broth. Here lies the warmth of humanity, the steamy cocoon that nurtures, the easily digested nutrition that cultivates. The protective fluid which holds the noodles also holds its own symbolism. We see it across our universe: it’s in the cerebrospinal fluid that holds the essence of our being, it’s the murky sea that birthed all modern life, and it’s the eternal emptiness between the stars that, incongruously, seems to fill the sky. This broth is also the untidy and fluid emotion that envelops our lives, it’s the soupy broth that is the sympathy of our relationships with others: it’s the protection and strife inherent in our familial bonds, it’s the meaningful succour of our friendships, and it’s the highly emotive broiling madness of our marital life. Our soup holds things together, and holds tight to the nutrients that would otherwise slip away. Without it, the noodles of our life can be dry, empty, and tasteless.
But there is more. Look at these ingredients which are added. Here we have an almost endless source of variation. What are your predilections? What represents you? Beef, carrot, tofu, garlic, spring onions, sugar, chillies of various types, vinegar, curry? You can choose. Have them all, or have some, it’s up to you. What you add changes what you get. Spicy, meaty, bland, sweet. It’s all here. Watch people with their bowl of noodle soup in the fancy restaurant or at the streetside food stall - no two people are quite the same in what goes into their bowl. In fact, even the same person’s bowl differs slightly from day to day. In these ingredients that create the color and spice of every bowl is a representation of the endless variation that forms part of our interesting world. Nobody’s wrong, and nobody’s right. Each bowl is unique, just as each person is unique.
Look. I am noodle soup. I am more than the sum of my parts. I am life, I am the substance holding life together, and I am the beautiful variation which flourishes out of what life has to offer. Study me: what I am calls for spiritual understanding. It calls for psychological investigation. It asks difficult epistemological questions, and questions tricky ontological arguments. I am noodle soup - I am everywhere, I see everything. Come with me, and let’s explore our universe and its inhabitants together.
I am Noodle Soup.
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